The Tale of Tales

Chapter 23

It wasn't until she felt the morning sun light on her face that Erza finally awoke. She was lying on a cot made of fur blankets inside of a cave. What was going on? This wasn't her house.

"How did I get here?" She thought.

"Granny!" She called out in horse voice. Her hand flew to her neck upon feeling how sore it was when she spoke. "Granny are you here?"

But there was no answer. At once all of yesterday's events came flooding back to her. Reverend Hades had sentenced her to death for supposedly commanding the wolves to kill three people and just before she burned in the flames a wolf had attacked the village and saved her life but everything had gone black after that. She tried to get up but her entire body ached from the chains and the burns of yesterday.

"You're awake and it seems that you have a sore throat."

Erza turned to see a woman wearing a cloak made from the hide of a wolf standing before her while holding a bowl of something hot. She had long white hair and blue eyes and she appeared to be the same age as Erza.

"Who are you?" Erza asked. "And where am I?"

"Try not to speak too much until your throat is heald and don't move so much either." She sat next to Erza and pulled a flask from her sleeve. "Here have some water."

It wasn't until now that Erza finally became aware of how unbearably thirsty she had become. She tried to lean up to reach it but the painful burns prevented her from doing so. So the young woman carefully lifted Erza's head up and carefully poured the water into her mouth. Once she had enough to drink the woman picked up the bowl and stuck a spoon in the bowl.

"This broth should soothe your throat and later I shall rub ointment on your burns."

"But who-"

"I'll answer your questions while you eat."

She then spoon fed her the broth. It was herbal broth that was supposed to work wonders when ingested.

"My name is Mirajane." She said. "And I have been instructed to tend to you until your body is finished healing. You were brought here last night by our Alpha."

"Alpha?" Erza thought.

She then spotted the blood tattoo on her left thigh. Intense fear filled her gaze and Mirajane noticed.

"Please don't be afraid you're among friends. Yes we are of the cursed race but we're not like the others. Honest."

Erza began searching for her knife but then felt very sleepy and fell back asleep. You see Mirajane figured that Erza would most likely try to attack her and her pack or leave or do both so she slipped some sleeping medicine into the broth. For the next few days as Erza healed she kept going in and out of consciousness. Whenever she was fully awake the only person she ever saw was Mirajane but sometimes as she was falling asleep she would hear Mirajane talking to a man.

"Is she getting any better?" She heard the man ask.

"Yes, she's a very strong woman but I'm a little concerned over what she'll do once she's recovered. I theorize that she'll most likely try to kill us all."

"I'm sure once we explain things to her it won't be like that."

"I'm not sure if she'll be open to explanations."

"I have faith that she'll listen to me."

"Even though you're the alpha and she's been wanting to put your head on a stick for ten years?"

"Ah-ha! So that man was the alpha." Erza thought.

"But then again you know her better than anyone else here so maybe you have some sort of special bond with her. After all you often call out her name when you're asleep."